A report in The Wall Street Journal adds further fuel to the suggestion that the LG G6 will see LG retreating from its modular smartphone design.

Speaking to the paper, an LG spokesperson said that the company is “responding to feedback that consumers aren’t interested in modular phones,” and will instead focus on the G6’s “aesthetics and usability”.

While the LG G6 has yet to be officially announced, this all but confirms the new flagship will mark a step back towards a more traditional phone design – following the modular setup of the LG G5. It follows a number of other similar rumours, including a report from the Electronic Times in Korea last October.

LG G6: Everything you need to know

The LG G5 was one of2016’s cleverest smartphones, boasting an excellent set of cameras, a superb screen and an ingenious modular expansion system. Will LG continue to think outside of the box with the LG G6?

Reports and rumours are starting to emerge about what the next flagship has in store. Here’s a roundup of everything we know so far.

LG G6: In a nutshell

The next flagship smartphone from LG

Announcement expected ahead of MWC 2017 in February

Expected to cost somewhere around £500

LG G6: Price and release date

In terms of a release timetable, we can make a guess about when the LG G6 will surface based on the company’s pattern for previous models. The LG G5 was announced in February 2016 ahead of Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), and was released in April. The LG G4 was also first released in April, but only for South Korea – the full global release didn’t come until June 2015.

We’d say that LG will probably want to launch the LG G6 ahead of MWC 2017, which starts 27 February. If the phone is unveiled then, we predict a similar UK rollout around April.

As for cost, we’re expecting something around the same mark as the LG G5 – slightly cheaper than its competitors, at around £500 SIM-free.

LG G6: Design

The LG G5 had a novel modular design, with interchangeable components that could easily be swapped out. It looks like LG will not be continuing this approach with the LG G6. A report from the Electronic Times in Korea claims that LG is dropping its modular approach with the upcoming flagship, which has been backed up by a report in The Wall Street Journal, quoting an LG spokesperson that the company is “responding to feedback that consumers aren’t interested in modular phones.”

Google similarly abandoned its Project Ara modular smartphone earlier this year, so it may be the case that the promise of modular phones has been extinguished. Another possible reason, according to a report fromET News, is that LG wants to focus on making the LG G6 waterproof.

Elsewhere there have been rumours that the LG G6 will lose the LG G5’s painted aluminum body in favour of a tempered glass back. An anonymous source told Korea’sChosunBiz that the company would move away from metal. Android Police’s David Ruddock recently tweeted that the LG G6 would have an all-glass design, but then corrected this to say that it will in fact have a metallic material on its rear.

As for the phone’s display, there have been reports that the LG G6 could get an OLED panel. This makes a degree of sense considering LG G6 already produces OLED displays for its TVs, although the report from ChosunBiz suggests that LG has struggled with these displays in the past and has made a decision not to include it in its newest smartphone.

LG G6: Features

Other information about likely features for the LG G6 is thin on the ground. The LG G5’s excellent dual rear camera was one of that phone’s most vaunted qualities, so we expect LG to bring something similar to its next flagship. The phone’s front camera sensor could, according to a rumour onDT.co.kr, double up as an iris scanner. This would set it apart from Samsung’s Galaxy S7, which uses two different sensors for the same tasks.

The biggest new feature could be a wireless charging system. Soon after the LG G5 was released, LG lifted the lid on a wireless-charging transmission module capable of filling a phone battery to 50% in a whopping 30 minutes.

Reports following this suggested that LG wouldn’t have the hardware ready in time for the LG G6, but sources recently told ET News that the handset could get wireless fast charging after all.